\National police commissioner Riah Phiyega. File photo. Photo credit: Supplied
Apparently Riah Phiyega's days as national commissioner are numbered as it turns out the police's tactical plan which led to the massacre at Marikana was premeditated and calculated, as it was their plan to attack even before the miners were given a chance to surrender their arms voluntarily. Details after the cut...
Delivering the report of the commission into the massacre, President Jacob Zuma said last night he had already written to inform Phiyega of its recommendations.
The commission recommended an inquiry into her fitness to hold office, after finding that the police had lied about plans on the day of the killings.
Almost immediately there were calls that the police commissioner should be suspended.
"Anybody implicated in serious wrongdoing that either contributed to the deaths of people at Marikana, or in allegations of lying under oath at the commission to cover up what happened, should also be suspended pending the conclusion of the inquiries against them," said Gareth Newham of the Institute for Security Studies. He said any "open and fair" inquiry would find that Phiyega had lied to the commission while under oath.
Unbelievable: A scene from Marikana, near Rustenburg, in North West, on August 16 2012, when police shot dead 34 striking mineworkers. The report of the Farlam Commission released by President Jacob Zuma last night came down hard on the police and their commanders. (see previous blog upload for the video)
Photo credit: Supplied
Unisa criminologist Professor Anthony Minnaar said it was all about accountability: "Whether she [Phiyega] gave any orders or not, she is in charge, irrespective. Just based on the evidence put before the commission, Phiyega's suspension is warranted."
The findings of the commission, read out by Zuma, were particularly damning of the conduct of the police in the lead-up to and on the day of the massacre in 2012, when 34 miners were fatally shot on a koppie near Wonderkop in the Rustenburg area. In the days before the police shooting, 10 other people were killed in violence around the Lonmin platinum mine, including non-striking miners, security guards and two police officers.
The Farlam Commission also called for an inquiry into the fitness to hold office of the then North West police commissioner, Lieutenant-General Zukiswa Mbombo.
The commission also singled out the SAPS members who did the shooting, saying their " criminal liability" at both scenes of the shooting at Marikana be investigated.
Police leadership had not informed the commission that the decision to go ahead with the tactical option had been made a day before the massacre, Zuma read.
"The commission found that it would have been impossible to disarm and disperse the strikers with- out significant bloodshed on August 16," he said, adding that the operation should have been stopped after the shooting at scene 1 but that a complete lack of command and control at scene 2 had prevented this.
The commission recommended that all killings and assaults that took place between August 11 and 15 be referred to the director of public prosecutions for further investigation. It recommended that a panel of experts review the training of police officers in crowd control and weapons use.
In his summary of the report, Zuma said mining house Lonmin and unions Amcu and the NUM did not do enough to ensure the safety of mineworkers at Marikana.
The commission found that allegations that Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa - then a non-executive director at Lonmin during negotiations to halt the strike - had used his influence to trigger the police action were "groundless''.
The then ministers of police and mineral resources, Nathi Mthethwa and Susan Shabangu, were also cleared.
Relatives of the dead miners expressed disappointment last night. Mthuthuzeli Xego, who lost his cousin Mafolosi Mabiya, said the recommendations would probably just "vanish" after being handed to the National Prosecuting Authority. "Nothing will happen, this will vanish into thin air like other cases investigated, or there will be delays that will last for another five years. Where is the truth, South Africa?" he said.
Nosipho Ntenetya, who lost her husband, Mongezeleli, in the shooting, said they had expected more from the report, for which they had had to wait a long time.
"We expected [Zuma] to elaborate more on what happened on that fateful day. We wanted him to talk about and reveal the culprits. We are disappointed by this, but we will wait for a briefing from our lawyers. But honestly we are not happy. We wanted closure but it's another long road ahead of us."
The Socio-Economic Rights Institute's director of litigation, Nomzamo Zondo, who represented the families of the striking miners killed by police, said Zuma had failed to reflect the horror of the Marikana massacre.
"At scene 2 police assassinated miners, which is not reflected in the president's speech, and the public is none the wiser ... We can't explain to some of the families what this means for them." She said the police had been made the scapegoats and Zuma had freed his government of any blame.
Additional reporting Bongani Fuzile, Roxanne Henderson and Reuters
Source: Times Live
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